The Reviews Are In: Another Take on Arrested Development Season 4

Yesterday, Whitney gave her review on Arrested Development‘s 4th season. While I will always respect her opinions, no matter how wrong they may sometimes be, I felt like I needed to step in and give my opinions, as well. Not in contradiction to her thoughts, but in addition.

I feel that it is impossible to not be somewhat disappointed by things you are excited about, especially when it comes to TV and movies. AD was facing a huge obstacle with this girl considering that I have been waiting with bated breath for this moment for 7 years. At first, it was just a dream, a silly fangirl’s whimsy, but when it was announced that a fourth season was actually going to happen I was more excited than Lindsay with diamond cream. Every production photo made scream like Tobias at a fire… sale and the trailer made me weep like Gob (“Taste the happy, Michael”).

When I watched the first few episodes, I will admit to being slightly disappointed. I missed having all of my Bluths together eating Skip’s Scrambles, doing chicken dances, or asking Michael for money. The jumping timelines were also confusing and I was having difficulty figuring when everything was supposed to be taking place.

However, around episode 5, when Tobias was getting ANUSTART, I realized Hurwitz and Co. were using this fourth season to build on what always made me love AD so much: this show makes you work for the best laughs. I have always loved that I could go back and watch the past seasons over and over and still find new jokes or small nuggets of information that I had previously missed. It seems that with this new season, they are really catering to that quality of the show. They are trusting that we, the stalwart fans who were smart enough to realize the brilliance of this show, are smart enough to connect the story line dots. After a few episodes I was doing just that and being reminded anew of that brilliance, born again to much more daunting levels with this fourth season. I was loving the reveals of everyone’s part in each other’s stories, I was noticing the recurring bits (tipping African-Americans, sexual predators, etc.), and I was getting more and more excited to re-watch all of it to catch all the things I am sure to have missed. The only question now is: How soon is too soon to do just that?

What did you think, “bluepies”? Have you been disappointed? How far have you gotten through the fourth season? Who has your favorite plotline? (I loved Gob, Buster, and Tobias).